Leading up to the draft, Green had a good feeling he was on the Lions' board

The competition at cornerback will be spotlighted once training camp starts at the end of July, and rookie Jonte Green will be one of the three corners from this year’s draft class that will be in the running for a starting spot with Bill Bentley (third round) and Chris Greenwood (fifth round) being the other two.

The Lions selected Green in the sixth round (196th overall) out of New Mexico State after scouting him heavily and brought him in as one of their 30 allotted pre-draft visits.

“My visit was great,” said Green. “I knew coach (Marcus Robertson), I saw him at my pro day. He had high expectations of me. He knows what kind of player I can become.

“I came in there met the coach and felt real good about the opportunity and I actually feel real good about the team.”

Leading up to the draft, Green had a pretty good idea that he was on the Lions’ board, based on his interactions with the coaching staff.

But trying to predict where he would get selected – and by which team – he felt was anybody’s guess.

“I knew I was on their radar, but I didn’t know if they were going to get me or not,” said Green. “I was on a lot of teams radars, but I didn’t know where I was going to end up.”

Once the draft started, Green chose to spend the three days with his family in St. Petersburg, Florida, waiting for his name to get called.

On day three, when he got the call, he couldn’t have been happier.

“I was kind of nervous, just nervous about who was going to pick me up,” he said. “Once I saw my name it took a lot of stress off of me.

“It was a relief, a relief off my back after all the hard work I had been doing.”

Now it’s a whole new ball game for the physical corner.

The Lions love Green’s size, speed and aggressiveness, and training camp and the preseason will really be his opportunity to show what he can do at this level.

“It’s different from college, getting to know a whole new scheme, getting to know how things work,” he said. “It’s a different approach and things move a whole lot faster out there on the field than it was in college.

“Getting to see the vets work and getting to work with those guys that I looked up to in college, it’s good to be around those guys. Chris Houston’s locker is right next to me and I can ask him questions on and off the field. He’s been around the league and he’s really been helping me."